Entrepreneurship

21 November 2019

“It is very encouraging that deregulation and red tape reduction are back on the agenda as economic reform priorities for the government,” said Daniel Wild, Director of Research with the free-market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs. Tonight the Prime Minister addressed the Business Council of Australia annual dinner where he outlined the government’s deregulation agenda. “The announcement by

5 August 2019

Free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs has welcomed the announcement that the Productivity Commission will lead a 12-month review to focus on streamlining regulation in the resources sector. IPA research estimated that red tape costs the Australian economy $176 billion each year in lost economic output, which is approximately 10 per cent of GDP. This makes red tape

31 January 2019

The future of freedom in Australia was dealt a blow at the start of the year with Senator David Leyonhjelm’s announcement that he will be resigning from federal politics to have a tilt at the state level in New South Wales. The Liberal Democrat Senator from NSW was one of precious few voices in Canberra who could be relied upon

21 June 2018

Australia is has experienced a gigantic fall in entrepreneurship. Between 2003-05 and 2012-14, small business start-ups — as a percentage of all small businesses — declined by 40 per cent. This decline is substantially larger decline than in comparable countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany. This is a key finding from a new book by the

1 March 2018

Red tape is holding back our entrepreneurs and threatening our economic prosperity, new IPA research has found. Nine of Australia’s top ten largest companies were founded before 1925; by contrast, 88 per cent of the United States’ top 500 firms did not exist fifty years ago. Newer businesses, by injecting innovative ideas and challenging outdated methods, deliver increased productivity, raise

30 January 2018

Inquiry into the future of work and workers in Australia We refer to the above inquiry, and provide a submission to the Senate Select Committee on the Future of Work and Workers (the Committee) on behalf of the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA). There is no doubt that technological changes present challenges for the modern workforce as it integrates advances

30 November 2017

A new report from the Department of Industry has found that the Australian entrepreneurship downturn is worse than previously thought. Earlier this month the IPA’s new report on entrepreneurship, Reigniting Australia’s Entrepreneurial Flame, found that there were 15,000 fewer new businesses created in 2016 than in 2003 and a fall in business entry rate of 16 per cent. This finding, which was based on analysis of the ABS business counts data, is despite working age population growing by

7 November 2017

Australia has experienced 26 years of unbroken economic growth. However, this aggregate figure masks stagnant wages growth and a deterioration in the living standards of many in the Australian middle class. The central cause of this deterioration is low and declining levels of business investment, which is approaching historic lows. Overregulation and red tape are two key causes of weak

7 November 2017

Free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs has today released a new landmark report, Barriers to Prosperity: Red Tape and the Regulatory State in Australia, authored by IPA research fellow Daniel Wild, which highlights the extent of the red tape crisis in Australia “Red tape in Australia has reached a crisis point. Urgent action is needed from policy

5 November 2017

The Institute of Public Affairs has tracked the state of entrepreneurship in Australia since 2014. This research was developed by Dom Talimanidis, the IPA’s former Ian Mence Fellow for Entrepreneurship, and is now part of the IPA’s Cut Red Tape to Unleash Prosperity project. Talimanidis found that the rate of firm creation, a key measure of entrepreneurship, has decreased. This